Tawn Mastrey

Tawn Mastrey (August 20, 1954 – October 2, 2007) was an American disc jockey, music video producer, one of rock radio's top media personalities. She hosted a daily show on Sirius Satellite Radio's "Hair Nation" Channel 23, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern time, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pacific time. Mastrey was heard nationally on Westwood One Entertainment's "Absolutely Live High Voltage" every other week. Mastrey hosted, wrote, produced and syndicated her own radio specials, "RockZone" and "Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Happy Hour", through Mastrey Productions, Inc. She did voice-overs, owned her own video production company, Ladies In Production Services, and wrote a cookbook, "Eat This".

Education

Mastrey studied broadcasting at Ron Bailie's School of Broadcast in San Francisco, California.

Career

Mastrey had hosted radio shows in California for KQLZ Pirate Radio in Los Angeles, KNAC in Long Beach, KLSX in Los Angeles, KMEL in San Francisco, and KSJO in San Jose, before appearing on KUFO in Portland, Oregon, in the late 1990s, and at KXXR in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At KNAC, Mastrey was known as the 'Leather Nun," a nickname she was accorded by a San Francisco-area radio station program director, who thought she resembled a character from a German comic book with that name.

Mastrey hosted MTV's stringer reports when the cable TV music channel first launched. She also hosted television specials for MTV and local Los Angeles television programs, and starred as the featured host for the "Metal Head Video Magazine" series.

In film, Mastrey appeared as herself in "The Blues Brothers", "Heavy Metal Thunder and Mud" and "".

She had been the long time imaging voice of WPBZ - 103.1 The Buzz in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Mastrey produced music videos including the Scorpions' "No One Like You", Greg Kihn's "Happy Man", and Romeo Void's "Never Say Never".

Illness

Tawn Mastrey died October 2nd, 2007 in Minneapolis at the age of 53. She had been suffering from the effects of hepatitis C, which she contracted as a child. She left her Hair Nation show in June, 2007, when she became too ill to work. In July, 2007, a number of metal musicians staged a benefit concert to raise money for an anticipated liver transplant, and to help raise awareness of the need for organ donations, through support for the nonprofit group Donate Life America.

External links

* [http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-mastrey7oct07,1,5983751.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california LATimes.com] - 'Tawn Mastrey, 53; popular DJ was the voice of late-'80s L.A. heavy-metal scene: The KNAC personality lived the life of a rock star without losing her ability to "speak the language" of the fans', Valerie J. Nelson, "Los Angeles Times" (October 7, 2007)
* [http://www.metalsludge.tv/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=380&Itemid=52 MetalSludge.tv] - '20 Questions with DJ Tawn Mastrey'
* [http://www.musicnewsnashville.com/archives/press_releases/2006/misc/sammyhagar.htm MusicNewsNashville.com] - 'Sammy Hagar To Host "Sammy's Cabo Wabo Happy Hour" Radio Show With Radio Veteran Tawn Mastrey And Van Halen Bassist Michael Anthony' (April 19, 2006)
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE4DA1338F931A25756C0A967958260 NYTimes.com] - 'Heavy-Metal Mania: It's More Than Music', DeAnne Stillman, "New York Times" (May 12, 1991)
* [http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/7/prweb543298.htm PRWeb.com] - 'Rockstar Musicians Come to Jam for Legendary Radio Icon Tawn Mastrey at Benefit Concert in Orange County California: Members of Dio, Great White and Xyz come out to rock with local Tribute bands Metal Knights, Masters of Reality and Lights Out to help raise much needed money for radio legend Tawn Mastrey at Martini Blues in Huntington Beach this past weekend.'
* [http://tawnmastreybenefit.com TawnMastreyBenefit.com] - 'On celebrations of Tawn's life...'
* [http://affiliates.westwoodone.com/music/tawn-mastery-bio.asp WestwoodOne.com] - 'Tawn Mastrey'